48 Contributions to the 



cially, when thrown into relief by a dark and rocky back ground. 

 Several gulls (Larus canus ?) and kestrels (Falco ^tinnunculus) 

 kept flying closely after one of these birds, and occasionally ap- 

 proached so near as apparently to strike him, this a gull certainly 

 once did, but " towering in his pride of place," the eagle never con- 

 descended to take even a momentary notice of them. 



Under the head of Golden Eagle, it has been mentioned, that of 

 the number thirteen or fourteen eagles killed at " the Horn" with- 

 in four years,* all but one individual were the Haliceetus albicilla. 

 I was informed by a gentleman resident at Dunfanaghy, the village 

 nearest to Horn Head, that in winter the sea eagle is comparatively 

 numerous, and that he has sometimes seen as many as six and seven 

 in company on the strand.t They are supposed to be attracted 

 hither at this season by rabbits, which greatly abound at " the Horn." 

 In an article by John Vandeleur Stewart, Esq. on the Birds, &c. of 

 Donegal, which appeared in the Magazine of Natural History for 

 1832, (p. 578,) the sea eagle is mentioned as resident and common. 

 The author states that he had received three specimens for his mu- 

 seum, besides five living eaglets. Mr William Sinclaire, also, has 

 a bird of this species from the same locality. In this county it 

 likewise frequents Malin Head, the extreme northern point of Ire- 

 land. 



When in June 1834, at Achil Head, which is fondly, but erro- 

 neously believed by the inhabitants of the island to approximate the 

 shores of the western world, more nearly than any other European 

 land, and stretching out afar into the Atlantic, is rendered sublime 

 less from altitude, than from the utter barrenness of its desolate and 

 inaccessible cliffs, a suitable accompaniment to the scene appeared 

 in a sea eagle which rose startled from her nest on the ledge of an 

 adjoining precipice. Two of these birds were seen by us the next 

 day, soaring above a lake in the island, and we were informed by 

 Lieutenant Reynolds, that four pairs of sea eagles breed in Achil. 

 With respect to this species being in so wild a district comparative- 

 ly fearless of man, it may be stated that on one occasion, when out 



gether white, yet some are marked so faintly with very pale ash-grey, as to ex- 

 hibit the appearance of soiled white, which, contrasted Avith the dark hue of the 

 back and wings, gives from a distance the appearance thus described. 



* The reward alone could hardly have prompted the destruction of this num- 

 ber, — one shilling a head only being given by the proprietor of " the Horn" for 

 them. 



•f- Temminck remarks that this species is common in winter on the shores of 

 Denmark. " Man. d'Orn. de I'Eur." part 3, p. 27. 



